The Kano State government has fixed January 31, 2025, as the deadline for recertification of certificates of occupancy (C-of-O), failure of which could lead to loss of land. This will affect current property owners in the state from 1963, prior to the establishment of the state.
Commissioner for the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning, Abduljabbar Muhammad Umar, announced this at a press briefing on yesterday.
He called on land owners in the state to promptly initiate the certification of their titles, reiterating that the process guarantees that ownership records are accurate, secure, and protected from future disputes to safeguard the people’s investments.
“I stand here before you today to reinforce the announcement earlier made by His Excellency the Executive Governor, and accordingly call on all people holding interest in land across the State, to immediately proceed to the Ministry of Land and Physical Planning to register their properties.
“As part of this transformation, all current C-of-Os will be rendered invalid at the expiration of this exercise on the 31st of January, 2025.
“I wish to remind the general public that in this administration’s efforts to provide an avenue for obtaining land documents affordably and seamlessly, as well as secure and strengthen land titles in the state, the latest and state of the art infrastructure has been provided at the Kano State Geographic Information System (KANGIS). This new system offers a host of critical benefits including:
“Providing accurate and reliable records through eliminating manual processes, and thereby minimizing errors, manipulation of land files and titles, and delays in processing transactions.
“This will also make land ownership verification and updates more straightforward.”
He also mentioned that the new certificates are designed with advanced security features, rendering them virtually impossible to forge.
The Kano State governor, Abba Yusuf, had earlier announced the flag-off of the recertification of all C-of-O issued by the state government and called on all citizens to take advantage to register or renew their interest in landed property across the state.